Anyone got any experience with this? I've seen this but I'd be doing it on the 2.0L not the TDI. I personally have never done an auto to manual swap and I dont have a problem jumping into things that're over my head and learning while i go, I just dont know if i can do it on a reasonable budget. Any input?
You will probably need a new ECU as well, along with the pedal box and trans. An ECU is probably pretty pricey considering it's a newer car. We were going to convert my E36 325is to manual, but it would be cheaper and obviously easier to buy a manual car than to swap the trans.
Good Luck, Steven
ECU should be a simple hookup to VAGCOM and switch a single value. At least, that's the way it is with a TDI. Yes, I am considering doing this to the wife's '03 TDI when I get her a new car. If you get lucky, you can find a car in a u-pull-it-yard with everything you need. And a 2 point slow is much more likely to be in one of those yards than a TDI. Heck, you might even be able to use stuff from a Mk III.
An auto-manual conversion is arguably worth it in a TDI, since the overall value of the car is reasonable enough to make it worth it... sometimes... but in a 2.0? Never in a million freakin' years... So one has to ask... Why? 
If you have one with a blown transmission that is otherwise nice, you'll be much farther ahead by buying a dirty 5 spd car and swapping over the nice bits...
I can get the car free, so I'm checkin if it's worth it, or how expensive/worthwhile/difficult would it be to do a engine and tranny swap to a 1.8t?
well, again not sure about the computer but 1.8t should go in just fine, manual swap is probably just a bunch of bolts too, its just sorting out all the computer/sensor stuff. If you have a whole (running) donor car you are set.
I doubt converting it to a 1.8t would be significantly harder than an auto-manual conversion. Your best bet would be to find a donor, of course. You'll want to swap the dash as well so the VIN matches the engine in case you need to have the car inspected and they check such things.
That said, if you have that kind of time, parting out the 2.0 and using the proceeds to buy a running 1.8t/5 spd would arguably be easier/cheaper.
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